Westboro BC to picket funerals for Lafayette victims

LAFAYETTE - The controversial Westboro Baptist Church has announced via its Twitter account that the group will protest outside of the funerals of Lafayette theater shooting victims Mayci Breaux and Jillian Johnson.

The church is known for picketing funerals of American service members and victims of mass shootings.

Louisiana State Police said 59-year-old John Russell Houser shot and killed two women and injured nine other people before taking his own life Thursday night. Houser's online presence included comments supporting the Westboro Baptist Church.

"The Westboro Baptist Church may be the last real church in America [whose] members [are] not brainwashed," one post read.

The Westboro Baptist Church may be the last real church in America[members not brainwashed].

A group of people in Lafayette organized a "human barrier" counter-protest event on Facebook. They said the goal of the event would be to create a silent wall to shield families of victims from the WBC picketers.